1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an Internet protocol (IP) address updating technique and, more particularly, to an IP address updating system and related method capable of automatically updating IP address installation information of a management controller.
2. Description of the Background Art
In 1998, Intel, Dell, HP and NEC proposed an intelligent platform manage interface (IPMI) standard. The IPMI provides a platform standard interface, through which a system manager is able to monitor operating behaviors of a plurality of components in a system, such as the operation of a central processing unit, the rpm of an electrical fan, the temperature of the system, and the voltage of a hardware component. The system manager can-further set corresponding sensing thresholds for the monitored components according to practical demands. Therefore, when sensing an abnormal event, an IPMI controller, that is a baseboard management controller (BMC), can record the abnormal event and current states of the system in the form of a diary, and send an E-mail or issue a simple network management protocol (SNMP) trap alarm to inform corresponding personnel of the whole story. With the help provided by certain hardware and software, the IPMI can further provide a function of remote management and system recall. Therefore, even the system manager is staying in an environment far from where the system is located, the system manager can still know the current states of the system. For example, the system manager knows a power-off state, a power-on state or a state when an operating system of the system stops working In accordance with monitoring results, the system manager issues a power-en command, a power-off command, or a reboot command to control the system remotely.
However, the system manager cannot control the remote system through the BMC successfully if IP addresses of the BMC are not matched with IP addresses of network interface cards (NIC) attached to the system. According to the prior an, the system manager sets the, IP addresses of the BMC manually through an IPMI driver with system management software (SMS). When the IP addresses (which are distributed randomly according to a dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP)) of the NICs are changed, the system manager has to reset the IP addresses of the BMC manually with the SMS, so as to keep the IP addresses of the BMC to be matched with the IP addresses of the NICs. If the IP addresses of the BMC are not updated synchronically according to the IP addresses of the NICs, that is the IP addresses of the BMC being different from the IP addresses of the NICs, the system cannot function normally due to IP address conflict.
Therefore, it becomes an important issue to providing a mechanism capable of updating IP address installation information of the BMC automatically, not manually, when the IP addresses of the NICs attached to the system are changed, so as to promote the efficiency of the system such as a network server.